Ken Campbell's Column

The GTA Centre, is about the NHL. Always has, always will be. Everyone involved in this project, which is very close to becoming a reality, is tiptoeing around the subject of an NHL team because they all want to play nice. But nobody is going to take on a project like this one without visions of an NHL team dancing in their heads.
The people most directly involved with building an NHL-caliber, 20,000-seat rink in suburban Toronto held another news conference on Saturday.

Could this be the year the Bruins and Blues reprise their roles as Cup finalists? Well, after watching the best team in the Eastern Conference and the best one in the Western Conference beat formidable conference opponents Monday night, the prospect is tantalizingly possible.
The last time we saw the Boston Bruins and St. Louis Blues in the Stanley Cup final, it was 43 years ago and Noel Picard was sending Bobby Orr airborne to create one of the most enduring images in the history of the game.

The Maple Leafs are 28th in shots for and 29th in shots against. With numbers like that, it’s a wonder how the Leafs ever even have the puck on their sticks during a game. But they do and when they have it, good things usually happen...at least for now.
To put the Toronto Maple Leafs analytics-defying season into perspective, consider the following: In the past 15 NHL seasons, there has been one team that has finished the season being outshot by a wider average margin than the Maple Leafs and Buffalo Sabres are in 2013-14.

Why Andrew Ladd and Josh Harding should make Team Canada, as of today; why the gimmicky shootout is likely to stay; and why shot blocking is overblown.
Some Monday morning musings:
• There are two players you would have never thought would work their way into the Canadian Olympic conversation who should be giving Steve Yzerman and his management team a lot to think about heading into the stretch run for selecting the team.

The Brodeur boys are pursuing hockey like their dad and late grandfather, but the similarities end there. They are very much their own people. But – for certain – the tale of Brodeurs between the pipes is far from over.
It was a Saturday afternoon in Winnipeg. Martin Brodeur set up camp in his hotel room and fired up his laptop to watch his son play hockey two provinces and almost 2,000 miles away.

It’s comforting to know that Buffalo Sabres owner Terry Pegula and the guy who checks the passports at the Queenston-Lewiston border crossing are on the same page. They both think Pat LaFontaine is the best man to run the Buffalo Sabres.
It’s comforting to know that Buffalo Sabres owner Terry Pegula and the guy who checks the passports at the Queenston-Lewiston border crossing are on the same page.

Icing, goalie fights will be hot topics at GM meetings; Jagr shows no signs of slowing down; remembering a Hall of Famer who died in the war.
When the NHL’s 30 GMs meet Tuesday in Toronto, it’s expected the league’s rule changes for this season will be discussed.

The Panthers aren't suddenly going to turn their season around under a new coaching staff. This team needs a new and improved roster.
Ask any coach in professional sports and he’ll tell you that fairness is not part of the equation when it comes to his chosen employment.

Not one Ottawa home game has been sold out this season and the team is allowing a ton of shots against each night - not exactly the start the team was looking for in its first year after Daniel Alfredsson.
The Ottawa Senators have hosted six games so far this season at the Canadian Tire Centre and not one of them has sold out. By comparison, the other NHL teams based in Canada have combined for 1,662 home games since the 2004-05 lockout and not one of them has had an empty seat.

The 10-1-0 Avalanche traded Steve Downie for Max Talbot, which left this THN columnist scratching his head and wondering "why?"
Part of my job here at The Hockey News, particularly when analyzing trades, is to provide some perspective and some reasoning behind why a move was made.

John Tortorella has always been known as a coach who plays the heck out of his star players, but will that have a negative impact on the Canucks in an Olympic year?
When John Tortorella and Alain Vigneault essentially switched places this past summer, they brought their coaching philosophies with them.

The Sabres shipped out their big-name scorer for Matt Moulson and draft picks, which means their GM will be the one in charge of the long-term rebuild.
It seems only fitting that on the week of Halloween, the GM with more lives than any other in the NHL would make a blockbuster trade. And for many Sabres fans, the news that Darcy Regier was at the helm to make it will be greeted with as much happiness as a zombie apocalypse.